A few years ago I took a workshop on Mt. Desert Island, and my classmates decided to take a trip up Cadillac Mountain. We asked our teacher if he’d like to join. He took out his phone, showed us a pic of the view, asking, “Does it look like this?” When the consensus reply was yes, but…and we pressed the invitation, his response was, “No thanks, I’m good.”
The incident stuck with me. On the surface it seemed sad, and limiting. But with more reflection, the thought of queuing behind RVs and SUVs and motoring up the snaking road to take a timed and allotted slot at the top just to pop out and gaze at the splendor for a fleeting moment, well maybe that isn’t so enticing after all. He may have had some insightful awareness.
Something might be taken from this, and an entrepreneur could help circumvent some of the troubling aspects of downtown tensions. Take in the charm of the West or Connecticut Rivers from the warmth of your couch. Comfortably glean the kaleidoscopic canopy of our labyrinthine backroads. Pan the hundred mile view. Sure, there’s no hot cider, or ambling bragging rights..but you can’t have everything.
A rolling take of Southern Vermont’s spectacular autumnal display, minus the angst and expense of driving- it’s just a click away. Sure, it’s kinda pathetic, a sign of our modern disconnect from nature. Droneward Bound. But nobody can tell me there wouldn’t be any takers. And for aggravated locals unhappy with touristic inundation, it’d be nice to cut down on rubberneckers clotting the roads, hogging the sublime Hogback vista.
Not that hard to do
Get a 360 degree camera and a computer to capture and upload images. Position it in the spot you want, set it to grab a new 360 panorama at regular intervals and upload them to a site where people with VR goggles could them view them “as if they were there”…. Could probably capture audio, too.
Then do a network of locations around the area to give viewers choices.
Make money by having ads for maple. : )